Dr. Butler showed his love for these
turtles with a great talk on these unique turtles. Locally, the
Carolina Diamondback Terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin centrata, occurs
as far south as northern Florida on the Atlantic side. These turtles
are becoming scarce due to many factors, some of which are disappearing
habitat and dying in crab traps in which they cannot escape. These
very attractive turtles are found in brackish waters along the coasts.

The following is a brief synopsis from
Joel Roberts from the meeting:

We learned all about diamondback terrapins
such as habitat, nesting locations, times, & techniques, diet,
predators, & much more. Such dedication they have for their
studies. They had gone to the island where they did their study
every day, rain or shine for the entire nesting/hatching
season. They are also working on the crab traps to try to
reduce the amount of turtle deaths with the use of turtle
excluders. Again, what dedication & what a love they must
have for these creatures to put in so much time & effort to make
a difference & to give these turtles a chance to remain on this
planet.